Corporations aren't normal members of the public. Except they're treated as such in court. So that the people who run them don't get treated like normal members of the public.
Personally I'm disappointed, anyway. There are lots of hard core gamers like me who own a Wii among their other systems and are just wishing that companies would be focused on it. They don't have to customize it for the Wii specifically, just make it available like for the other systems. I really don't understand why it has to be left out.
Capcom released Resident Evil 4 and Umbrella Chronicles for Wii, but are not releasing RE5 for it. Rockstar released Bully for Wii, but no GTA games. A Katamari game came out for 360 and not Wii (or PS3 for that matter). Virtua Fighter 5, GTA4, Orange Box, DMC4, Ninja Gaiden, are all "cross-platform" titles not available on Wii either. I'd really be willing to play them on that system if they were out for it, no matter how pared down, and I'm sure a lot of others would like to have the option as well. It's about the gameplay, not the graphics, and Wii owners know that already. These games offer compelling gameplay, but are not available on the Wii. It's crap.
I'm glad at least other companies seem to be supporting it with strong releases such as Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Ghostbusters, Sonic The Hedgehog, Guitar Hero, etc. Some people will argue that that the Wii is all about casual entertainment, but then I see that games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Sing Star, Scene It, focusing primarily on the other systems. Other systems also had downloadable casual games before the Wii, and both have camera peripherals they are using to bring motion-based games to the systems (even PS2 had Eye Toy).
Is it a Wii marketing fumble that Nintendo is not emphasizing hard core games enough, or a 3rd party problem because they do not see the market for these games on the Wii?
Hell no, either nobody can fucking understand these things, or we're all too fucking stupid and hopeless to even try. Thank fucking christ that you exist. Honestly I don't know what the fuck we'd do without you, or what we're going to do when you ditch this place after getting sick of dealing with such stupid, ungrateful, fucking morons. Jesus Christ. Well thanks a fucking lot for stopping by and explaining this crazy hard shit to all of us numbskulls. Holy fuck I don't know what we'd do without you pal. At least now the shit is set straight. Alright everyone, crisis over, go back to your fucking corners. Jesus!
Hideo Kojima has said Raiden only existed to show Snake from another perspective to the gamer. I think it worked pretty well, MGS2 is my favorite of the series.
What is still missing from Linux that Vista has is applications that are ready for typical end users. As long as Linux geeks continue to believe that OpenOffice is as good as Microsoft Office, the GIMP is as good as Photoshop, etc.
My dad thinks so, grandma thinks so, aunts and uncles, even brothers and sisters and cousins and friends do (okay, maybe they don't use Gimp, but they definitely use Krita and in some cases Inkscape). Nobody really notices the difference in many cases, and as long as they can open their files, they're happy. A lot of the times these applications do a better job than their Windows counterparts in reading their files without giving them weird cautionary messages as well. The operating system tends to stay out of their way, and the fact that installing one application is the same as installing another makes them feel comfortable with searching for software when they felt unable to before. Installs don't ask them odd questions and talk about file settings, or have long lists of issues to read about, and plugging in new hardware doesn't ask them to put in a CD or ask them to set anything up. One piece of hardware uses the same exact software as another and doesn't have some nuanced custom software that controls only that piece of hardware. Software updates are made all from one location so the user feels safer knowing that their system is up to date all by looking in one place. They control their desktop, it does not control them, and they are a lot happier using Linux.
Linux doesn't have things like games and business admin software of the same level as those available on Windows
A lot of people are moving away from PC games and onto consoles for their gaming needs, especially as upgrading PCs is expensive and often not necessary, except only for the sake of games. As for business admin software, that doesn't really stop people from using it on the desktop. Workstations and servers may be another matter, but I think Linux has proven itself to be a contender there and the situation will only improve. People have a lot of trouble administering Windows machines as well so it's probably a moot point.
Because it was (re?)introduced to the masses with the DS in a way that showed them how it could be useful and entertaining. Before, all the average user could do was buy a really expensive and hard to find computer monitor with limited applications that were geared toward the device itself (as opposed to just letting you control mouse cursor clicks or menu selections). I'm sure a lot of people wanted the benefits of the device before now, but they were concerned with smearing or scratching their screens, and paying a lot for very little gain. PDAs were the only semi-common item with touch screens, but they were complicated to the average user and didn't have any entertaining or immediately appealing uses for the touch technology.
Now, on cheaper and smaller devices that have extended themselves to include many applications that familiarize users with these capabilities (iPod Touch, iPhone, DS, is there much else that is reaching the mass audience and catching the attention of your grandpa?), it sometimes makes more sense than dedicated buttons, plus anything that increases screen real-estate makes it more attractive to the consumer.
Besides, what devices could have benefited from touch screens in the past, where it wouldn't have been cost prohibitive? Were the devices missing their target audience and not being purchased because of the lack of these features? Aren't we just following the natural evolution of these devices given market reception to surprisingly successful risks that Nintendo and Apple have taken?
..where by I can double click on a single file and have it install a
whole program including notifying and automatically installing
programs it is dependent upon.
Heck I really wish Windows could have this. Instead, every program has its own wizard with selections that must be maticulously considered lest you install some unwanted spyware or have your preferences hijacked. You also have to beware of any companion applications that may try to subvert your preferences and file associations. Plus if you back up your application, you have to rely on the fact that there are no time, date, or version constraints that try and prevent you from installing it at a later date or on another OS or with different software installed on your PC.
And after all that hassle, the software probably doesn't even work with automatic updates, or has its own update mechanism with its own preferences. The uninstall may or may not remove all files, especially since on opening the program you find out you are missing some DLLs and have to hunt them down all over the web, because they didn't automatically install.
Sure 85% prefer it. They base all of their opinions on information that has been filtered through the govenrment, so why would they think it's bad if the government tells them it's good? They don't know why it would be bad, and why information that the government is blocking could be useful. They don't even have the context to put that information in even if they do have access, so they would probably have a skewed view on what they would be seeing anyway. This poll is pretty worthless. If there are any citizens of China that are qualified to comment on this they would have to not be exposed to the censorship, and then be asked what they feel about the topics China is censoring. The poll conducted in the article is useless.
Yeah, I would also like to say that the snide and snarky tone of groklaw articles annoys me. I like the idea behind the site, I like that it is in most ways constructive, but it doesn't need to read like an indignant child wrote it.
In Soviet Russia, Slashdot gets slashdotted, with spam from other web sites with little links like "slashdot it!"
I guess Slashdot has become popular because it gives a lot of other web sites hits, so people know to submit stories here outside the usual audience. Which poses a problem for the usual audience I guess. Maybe all things mass-submitted should be put under a different category that we can just block. I mean, I would probably read this kind of thing if I came across it on another site, or in an email forward... but that's not what I come to Slashdot for personally.
If it's simple games, I can see the market not having much of a problem buying them for $5 each or whatever. But if these are full fledged games that will compete with the ones released on DS or PSP, then people might have a problem with not being able to buy them in stores as gifts (buying an iTunes gift card will have the stigma of thoughtlessness that giving cash in a card does), or simply not having physical media to lend or trade on used markets.
Personally I bought a Powerbook to use as a laptop simply for the hardware quality (and GarageBand, liked it after fooling around with it once, though RoseGarden is similar). I find myself using OSX, especially since the Airport Extreme is not supported by Ubuntu out of the box and rather than poking around I decided to try using OSX as an experiment to see how the interface could work for me*. However, I still like my open source applications, and have loaded Gimp, Inkscape, NeoOffice, Adium, Audacity, Firefox, and I really wish I could get K3B on there. Hopefully soon I will be able to with the multiplatform KDE effort. I don't really know anyone else with an Apple computer so I can't really say what everyone else is doing. Who knows, maybe there are others like me.
* One thing is I find myself using keyboard shortcuts a lot more. They aren't intuitive but OSX kinda forces you to memorize them to get out of the hassle of using drop-down menus. I'm used to just invoking the menu and quickly navigating to the option I need using mnemonics, because that's how I remember them from selecting them from a mouse in the first place, and somehow it just seems more natural for me. Keyboard shortcuts at least work the same across applications, and menu layout and mnemonic choices are probably more likely to vary.
Programmers were forced to take advantage of undocumented API calls in order to compete with the applications MS produced which used those. Also, a lot of API calls were not documented well enough such that the behavior was not questioned by the programmer and so the broken behavior was relied upon to make the application work.
It's funny because above, someone was claiming that variety was being eliminated. People generally use the same software together across all distributions, the distros just tie the software all together into repositories with maybe some unique administrative tools, a unique theme, and their own configuration of kernel options and patches. But people use the same software to get work done, and work is focused on them to make them better. The apps on my linux desktop work great together because they don't exclude from each other support for file formats and the same libraries can be used across different programs that don't hide their secrets from each other, so actually I find everything a lot more cohesive on Linux generally. Apps don't try and trample on each other with their settings and tray monitoring applications and that sort of thing as well, and I don't need to update to the premium version for needed functionality.
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft moves faster than the speed of the law.
Corporations aren't normal members of the public. Except they're treated as such in court. So that the people who run them don't get treated like normal members of the public.
with Gnome's approach what do you do when a user wants a feature that has been removed?
You write a basic task-oriented application. You could argue that Gnome is a more modular approach while KDE is a more monolithic approach.
Personally I'm disappointed, anyway. There are lots of hard core gamers like me who own a Wii among their other systems and are just wishing that companies would be focused on it. They don't have to customize it for the Wii specifically, just make it available like for the other systems. I really don't understand why it has to be left out.
Capcom released Resident Evil 4 and Umbrella Chronicles for Wii, but are not releasing RE5 for it. Rockstar released Bully for Wii, but no GTA games. A Katamari game came out for 360 and not Wii (or PS3 for that matter). Virtua Fighter 5, GTA4, Orange Box, DMC4, Ninja Gaiden, are all "cross-platform" titles not available on Wii either. I'd really be willing to play them on that system if they were out for it, no matter how pared down, and I'm sure a lot of others would like to have the option as well. It's about the gameplay, not the graphics, and Wii owners know that already. These games offer compelling gameplay, but are not available on the Wii. It's crap.
I'm glad at least other companies seem to be supporting it with strong releases such as Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Ghostbusters, Sonic The Hedgehog, Guitar Hero, etc. Some people will argue that that the Wii is all about casual entertainment, but then I see that games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Sing Star, Scene It, focusing primarily on the other systems. Other systems also had downloadable casual games before the Wii, and both have camera peripherals they are using to bring motion-based games to the systems (even PS2 had Eye Toy).
Is it a Wii marketing fumble that Nintendo is not emphasizing hard core games enough, or a 3rd party problem because they do not see the market for these games on the Wii?
Right now I would be happy just to be able to back up so much data on a conveniently sized medium that has no moving parts.
Can't you just use windows.forms with Mono?
Is it possible to work the functionality in with an extension?
Yeah I'm seriously sick of this. It's like getting email forwards on the news.
Yeah, just like how they maintain POSIX compliance.
Hell no, either nobody can fucking understand these things, or we're all too fucking stupid and hopeless to even try. Thank fucking christ that you exist. Honestly I don't know what the fuck we'd do without you, or what we're going to do when you ditch this place after getting sick of dealing with such stupid, ungrateful, fucking morons. Jesus Christ. Well thanks a fucking lot for stopping by and explaining this crazy hard shit to all of us numbskulls. Holy fuck I don't know what we'd do without you pal. At least now the shit is set straight. Alright everyone, crisis over, go back to your fucking corners. Jesus!
Sounds like it's going to take really long to load a program.
Hideo Kojima has said Raiden only existed to show Snake from another perspective to the gamer. I think it worked pretty well, MGS2 is my favorite of the series.
What is still missing from Linux that Vista has is applications that are ready for typical end users. As long as Linux geeks continue to believe that OpenOffice is as good as Microsoft Office, the GIMP is as good as Photoshop, etc. My dad thinks so, grandma thinks so, aunts and uncles, even brothers and sisters and cousins and friends do (okay, maybe they don't use Gimp, but they definitely use Krita and in some cases Inkscape). Nobody really notices the difference in many cases, and as long as they can open their files, they're happy. A lot of the times these applications do a better job than their Windows counterparts in reading their files without giving them weird cautionary messages as well. The operating system tends to stay out of their way, and the fact that installing one application is the same as installing another makes them feel comfortable with searching for software when they felt unable to before. Installs don't ask them odd questions and talk about file settings, or have long lists of issues to read about, and plugging in new hardware doesn't ask them to put in a CD or ask them to set anything up. One piece of hardware uses the same exact software as another and doesn't have some nuanced custom software that controls only that piece of hardware. Software updates are made all from one location so the user feels safer knowing that their system is up to date all by looking in one place. They control their desktop, it does not control them, and they are a lot happier using Linux. Linux doesn't have things like games and business admin software of the same level as those available on Windows A lot of people are moving away from PC games and onto consoles for their gaming needs, especially as upgrading PCs is expensive and often not necessary, except only for the sake of games. As for business admin software, that doesn't really stop people from using it on the desktop. Workstations and servers may be another matter, but I think Linux has proven itself to be a contender there and the situation will only improve. People have a lot of trouble administering Windows machines as well so it's probably a moot point.
Because it was (re?)introduced to the masses with the DS in a way that showed them how it could be useful and entertaining. Before, all the average user could do was buy a really expensive and hard to find computer monitor with limited applications that were geared toward the device itself (as opposed to just letting you control mouse cursor clicks or menu selections). I'm sure a lot of people wanted the benefits of the device before now, but they were concerned with smearing or scratching their screens, and paying a lot for very little gain. PDAs were the only semi-common item with touch screens, but they were complicated to the average user and didn't have any entertaining or immediately appealing uses for the touch technology.
Now, on cheaper and smaller devices that have extended themselves to include many applications that familiarize users with these capabilities (iPod Touch, iPhone, DS, is there much else that is reaching the mass audience and catching the attention of your grandpa?), it sometimes makes more sense than dedicated buttons, plus anything that increases screen real-estate makes it more attractive to the consumer.
Besides, what devices could have benefited from touch screens in the past, where it wouldn't have been cost prohibitive? Were the devices missing their target audience and not being purchased because of the lack of these features? Aren't we just following the natural evolution of these devices given market reception to surprisingly successful risks that Nintendo and Apple have taken?
No, that would be seizing it. They need an excuse to seize it. Customs can search without cause, and they can seize things by giving an excuse.
There, fixed that for you.
Heck I really wish Windows could have this. Instead, every program has its own wizard with selections that must be maticulously considered lest you install some unwanted spyware or have your preferences hijacked. You also have to beware of any companion applications that may try to subvert your preferences and file associations. Plus if you back up your application, you have to rely on the fact that there are no time, date, or version constraints that try and prevent you from installing it at a later date or on another OS or with different software installed on your PC.
And after all that hassle, the software probably doesn't even work with automatic updates, or has its own update mechanism with its own preferences. The uninstall may or may not remove all files, especially since on opening the program you find out you are missing some DLLs and have to hunt them down all over the web, because they didn't automatically install.
Sure 85% prefer it. They base all of their opinions on information that has been filtered through the govenrment, so why would they think it's bad if the government tells them it's good? They don't know why it would be bad, and why information that the government is blocking could be useful. They don't even have the context to put that information in even if they do have access, so they would probably have a skewed view on what they would be seeing anyway. This poll is pretty worthless. If there are any citizens of China that are qualified to comment on this they would have to not be exposed to the censorship, and then be asked what they feel about the topics China is censoring. The poll conducted in the article is useless.
It's the cinnamon swirls in every bite!
Yeah, I would also like to say that the snide and snarky tone of groklaw articles annoys me. I like the idea behind the site, I like that it is in most ways constructive, but it doesn't need to read like an indignant child wrote it.
Dear concerned citizens, We do but then we have to deal with those around us who limit our power, blackmail us, and lobby against us. Thanks
In Soviet Russia, Slashdot gets slashdotted, with spam from other web sites with little links like "slashdot it!"
I guess Slashdot has become popular because it gives a lot of other web sites hits, so people know to submit stories here outside the usual audience. Which poses a problem for the usual audience I guess. Maybe all things mass-submitted should be put under a different category that we can just block. I mean, I would probably read this kind of thing if I came across it on another site, or in an email forward... but that's not what I come to Slashdot for personally.
If it's simple games, I can see the market not having much of a problem buying them for $5 each or whatever. But if these are full fledged games that will compete with the ones released on DS or PSP, then people might have a problem with not being able to buy them in stores as gifts (buying an iTunes gift card will have the stigma of thoughtlessness that giving cash in a card does), or simply not having physical media to lend or trade on used markets.
Personally I bought a Powerbook to use as a laptop simply for the hardware quality (and GarageBand, liked it after fooling around with it once, though RoseGarden is similar). I find myself using OSX, especially since the Airport Extreme is not supported by Ubuntu out of the box and rather than poking around I decided to try using OSX as an experiment to see how the interface could work for me*. However, I still like my open source applications, and have loaded Gimp, Inkscape, NeoOffice, Adium, Audacity, Firefox, and I really wish I could get K3B on there. Hopefully soon I will be able to with the multiplatform KDE effort. I don't really know anyone else with an Apple computer so I can't really say what everyone else is doing. Who knows, maybe there are others like me.
* One thing is I find myself using keyboard shortcuts a lot more. They aren't intuitive but OSX kinda forces you to memorize them to get out of the hassle of using drop-down menus. I'm used to just invoking the menu and quickly navigating to the option I need using mnemonics, because that's how I remember them from selecting them from a mouse in the first place, and somehow it just seems more natural for me. Keyboard shortcuts at least work the same across applications, and menu layout and mnemonic choices are probably more likely to vary.
Programmers were forced to take advantage of undocumented API calls in order to compete with the applications MS produced which used those. Also, a lot of API calls were not documented well enough such that the behavior was not questioned by the programmer and so the broken behavior was relied upon to make the application work.
It's funny because above, someone was claiming that variety was being eliminated. People generally use the same software together across all distributions, the distros just tie the software all together into repositories with maybe some unique administrative tools, a unique theme, and their own configuration of kernel options and patches. But people use the same software to get work done, and work is focused on them to make them better. The apps on my linux desktop work great together because they don't exclude from each other support for file formats and the same libraries can be used across different programs that don't hide their secrets from each other, so actually I find everything a lot more cohesive on Linux generally. Apps don't try and trample on each other with their settings and tray monitoring applications and that sort of thing as well, and I don't need to update to the premium version for needed functionality.